Cooling systems for digital devices have traditionally employed a heat sink thermally coupled to the digital device. In some other systems, a fan has also been employed to direct a flow of air through the heat sink, thereby accelerating the dissipation of heat from the heat sink and, therefore, from the digital device.
However, traditional cooling systems for digital devices have also relied upon a supply of relatively cool air from the environment to blow onto and transfer heat away from the digital device. As a result, proposed solutions in the prior art have included vents, apertures, or other openings generally into the housing of the digital device to provide a supply of cool air from the environment.
The introduction of air from the environment into the housing of a digital device may also results in the introduction of contaminants. Substances carried along with the environmental air can inhibit and impair the operation of the digital device, causing faulty performance by or early failure of the digital device. Moreover, the accumulation of contaminants in the cooling system can result in a reduction in efficacy of the cooling system. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a cooling system that can operate in a system sealed from the environment, hence without a supply of air external the sealed system.
Sealed cooling systems are known in the art. As an example, a Peltier device can be used to cool a digital system without a supply of external air. However, Peltier devices are expensive to produce and use electricity inefficiently in comparison to more traditional cooling systems. Accordingly, there is a need for a cooling system in a sealed environment that is inexpensive to produce and is energy efficient.
Other proposed solutions have included the use of a sealed system containing a fluid thermally coupled to the digital device in association with a radiator where fluid warmed by the digital device radiates the heat into the environment. However, these systems require significant amounts of space in order to pipe the fluid between the radiator and the thermal coupling with the digital device. Accordingly, there is a need for a cooling system that can operate in a space-limited sealed system.